Leeches Balling Up the Line

[JerkinLips]

Anyone else have problems with leeches curling up in a ball around the hook and twisting the line a lot?  It happens a few times to me every trip up.  I hook the leech just below the sucker end.  I troll slow at 0.3mph so I am sure that makes it more likely.  Now I am lowering the line slower while moving to keep pulling the leech forward and that seemed to help.

[tinker]

I have had that problem too. Mostly with the smaller Leech. Tried hooking either end didn't seem to matter. I'm thinking they do stretch out at depth.

[leech~~]

Before letting down the line I just keep tipping them in and out of the water until the little bast-ers straighten out. 

[Wanderer]

For dragging, try hooking on the pointed end rather than the sucker end.  They swim pointed end first.  Under a float, hooking on the sucker end allows them to swim more naturally.

[StateofHockey]

I agree with wanderer on hooking ends and the other comments on letting them down carefully. Yet still had to retie 3-4 times this weekend after my leech followed the Chubby Checker Twist!

[SkunkedAgain]

Good points. I chuckled a bit thinking of it from a walleye's perspective, seeing a leech swimming at them backwards must be "what-was-that?" moment in their life.

[BirchPtMike]

Put leeches in lake water for a while first They are rolling up because you are taking them out of cold water

[Raven77]

Last week I had a leech, pulled out of a bath-water-warm container, completely tie itself in a knot around my line.  They are straight out of a "Matrix" movie in the stuff they can do.  Thanks Wanderer on the tip for hooking the tail end for dragging.  I will try it.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Raven77

[Hookmaster]

23 hours ago, Wanderer said:

For dragging, try hooking on the pointed end rather than the sucker end.  They swim pointed end first.  Under a float, hooking on the sucker end allows them to swim more naturally.

X 2

The small end of the leech is the head end. It naturally swims head first, so hook the way Wanderer described for each presentation.

[gimruis]

When I used to lindy rig a fair amount, we called this getting "slimed."  It created a mess and I wondered why I wasn't getting any bites.

[JerkinLips]

On 7/17/2022 at 5:03 PM, Wanderer said:

For dragging, try hooking on the pointed end rather than the sucker end.

I may give this a try next time.  However, I like the lively action when I hook them on the sucker end and I troll (drift?) very slow at 0.2mph, so I will likely continue to check my leech frequently and accept the couple of "mess" cleanups.